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Soup

Scotch Broth

A hearty mutton and barley soup with onions and turnips.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Scotch Broth

Why it works: Barley and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 629 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Scotch Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the chops from the neck of mutton and chop the remainder into small pieces.

  2. Stew the mutton pieces gently all day.

  3. Boil ¼ cup pearl barley in a little water until tender, then strain it dry.

  4. Chop 2 large onions and 2 turnips finely.

Make the broth

  1. Combine the barley, chopped onions, turnips, and stewed meat in a close stew-pan.

  2. Strain the broth into the stew-pan along with the water from the barley.

  3. Boil for 1.5 hours, skimming well.

  4. Season with salt and pepper.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Barley + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together629 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Turnip + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,252 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Barley + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Mutton
Provides the meat and rich flavour that the broth is built on.
Pearl barley
Thickens the broth and adds body as it cooks.
Onions
Add sweetness and aroma to the broth as they soften.
Turnips
Add mild sweetness and body to the broth.

The step that matters

Skimming during the long boil. Skimming removes foam and fat that rise to the surface, keeping the broth clear and preventing a greasy, cloudy result.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, barley, turnip, pepper):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, barley, turnip, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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